A purported nude photo of Zac Efron has hit the web, and it has become a very hot topic on Twitter. But is it the real deal?

It wouldn’t be all that surprising to learn that Zac has taken nude photos of himself. After all, his ex Vanessa Hudgens has been caught up in two nude photo scandals of her own. If some of those photos were meant for Zac’s eyes only, who’s to say that he didn’t take some to send to her, too?

It’s not like male celebrities never get caught with their pants down — a nude photo of Chris Brown leaked to the web earlier this year, proving that celeb guys also enjoy the dangerous acting of sexting. So was Zac Efron just showing off for Vanessa or some other mystery lady? And where did the photo come from?

It seems very likely that the photo being passed around Twitter is a fake. One user posted this SFW pic showing an old side photo of Zac Efron’s head beside the cropped image of his head in the purported nude photo. The two are almost identical except for the actor’s hair, so it seems that the nude pic was probably Photoshopped. However, some Twitter users are arguing that Zac’s face is also visible in a mirror, so it couldn’t have been manipulated. Since some celebrity nude photos are hacked, it wouldn’t be surprising if it was the real deal.

Then there’s always the possibility that Zac leaked the photo himself on purpose in order to leave his squeaky clean High School Musical image behind (something Vanessa Hudgens has also been accused of). After all, he will be starring in his first rated R comedy soon. If this is the case, hopefully Justin Bieber doesn’t get any ideas — he also seems to be struggling to leave his teen idol image behind.

So what do you think — is Zac Efron the kind of guy who would take a nude photo himself?